As reported in a Washington Post editorial Monday morning, China is prepared to renew its human rights dialogue with the U.S. after a five-year hiatus – triggered by China’s repeated objections to international interventions in its domestic affairs.

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The Post opined that China’s turnabout was generated by “growing international criticism of its pre-Olympics crackdown on dissent and of its relationships with Sudan and Burma.”

Of course, this is good news. The Post headline got it right: “Let’s Talk.”

But here’s the bad news:

The United States no longer has the credibility to influence any substantive change in Chinese human rights practices.

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We squandered it at Abu Ghraib.

We squandered it at Guantanamo.

We squandered it by bedding down with some of the world’s most repressive and authoritarian regimes – Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for example.

And we squandered it at home.

We made endless and as yet unfulfilled promises to find safe haven for the Iraqis forced by our occupation to flee their country.

We rounded up Muslims and others who we thought looked like Muslims, jailed them without charges or lawyers, and then convicted no one.

We engaged in “extraordinary renditions” – shipping people to countries quite likely to torture them.

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We authorized our CIA to run secret prisons full of ghost prisoners, unknown even to the Red Cross.

Our president used his “signing statements” to trash the Constitution and rule of law.

He used his veto pen to give the CIA free reign to engage in waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation” techniques, while piously claiming “America doesn’t torture.”

William Fisher has managed economic development programs in the Middle East and elsewhere for the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development. He served in the international affairs area in the Kennedy Administration and now (more...)